7/21/2014

An example of simulated data modelled for the CMS particle detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Here, following a collision of two protons, a is produced which decays into two jets of hadrons and two electrons. The lines represent the possible paths of particles produced by the proton-proton collision in the detector while the energy these particles deposit is shown in blue. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

the author wrote:
"It was worth about an hour of my time to offer a more science-based perspective, and hopefully educate the public about scientific research design, the placebo effect, and the unprovable basis behind acupuncture."

And I took the liberty of posting the following response:
Thank you for educating me/everybody ...
I am sorry, but I am only a stupid craftsman, meaning I have been practicing acupuncture as an acupuncture (licensed) craftsman for 30 years. I am NOT an academic and much less a scholar. THAT means, EVERYBODY here is a million times smarter than I am and I have no chance in any discussion pertaining to "scientific issues" with anybody here.

But I would like to thank you for finally educating (you said in your post "the public") and convincing me, that I must be completely delusional regarding everything I saw/experienced over the fast 3 decades. So must be ALL of my patients, probably imagining the pain with which they visited my clinic and without (or much reduced) they left it. The pain etc. much have been faked to begin with.
Naturally, ALL my colleagues worldwide are delusional. So are ALL patients worldwide, who have been using this treatment modality for over 2,000 years. Not to speak of the the (American) military, which seems to have found a new love, they call "battlefield acupuncture". I am sure, all those wounded in combat will agree with you, that any effect is just a dreamt up imagination called placebo effect. And the German government, which chose to make acupuncture (for low back pain and knee pain) reimbursable by public health insurance after the GERAC study, is of course completely off track.
EVERYBODY in the whole wide world over a period of 2 millenia is wrong ... except you, of course.
Scientists, who have not only the "theory of everyting", but are also the one and only holders of the one and only "(scientific) truth", while everybody else is obviously crazy.
I would like to suggest reading some books about the "history of science", which is filled with examples of unshakeable scientific truths completely turned over in the blink of an eye because of some discovery or invention. OR ... the millions of examples, where the "scientific proof" of whatever could only be made, after suitable instruments became available and scientists were CRAZY enough to consider ideaas, that might have brought them the death penalty a little earlier ...
Before the invention of the microscope ... microorganisms simply did not exist and the black death was all the result the vivid imagination. right?
A more recent example: the Higgs particle. Its existence was an absolute MUST in order to make modern physics work, but since Mr. Higgs proposed it in 1964, NOBODY on the entire planet -- in spite of spending MUCH more money than has ever been spend on all acupuncture research globally -- could produce ANY form of evidence of its existance for more than half a century. But that is OK, because it is completely different from proposing the existance of something for which the human race throughout all ages and in all cultures has a name, which happens to be in Chinese to pronounced "qi", right?
Given that fact that "particle physics" is around only a little over a century, that translates maybe into a thousand years of "ordinary history" ...

Since there were also complaints about the money spent (= wasted) on research into acupuncture etc., it would be really nice, if you could provide some EVIDENCE = give concrete figures about how much money has been spend for the kind of research you critisize and "scientific" research. I do not have those figures, but am CERTAIN that the amount of money spend to figure out how/if acupuncture works is a VERY TINY fraction of the money spend for other research. Take for example the above mentioned research into the Higg's particle. This project alone will have cost probably more that ALL the research worldwide over the last century. (not to mention that it has no real bearing on everybody's daily life; although I like the story).
Maybe you are familiar with the long outdated "HFA2000" project of the WHO. There is a nice book about it by a person called Bannermann. The project, which intended to offer "Health fo All by the year 2000 (= HFA2000)", failed. One of the major reasons: modern, "scientific" medicine is simply too expensive to provide half-way acceptable health care for the world's population. Only a few selected (rich) people can enjoy that. But I guess, that is not important at all.
http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/58933

So, I would like to thank you again for educating me, my patients, everybody on earth, that we ALL are crazy/delusional and YOU (the scientists) are the only one "sane".
I take the liberty of assuming, that you know "sane" means healthy.
Let's see how YOU react, when you are "insane" = unhealthy, possibly in pain, like for example because of cancer in terminal stage. Or if this would happen to your wife or children. I am sure, you or your family would just love to strap on some textbooks about "evidence based medicine" in the hope, that the evidence described therein will cast a scientific spell like "pain, pain go away, come some other day ...". If that does not work .. you wil have to wait until the relevant evidence hat been found and suitable suitable scientific devices/chemical developed. Absolutely no chance of even considering anything that HAS helped uncountable people, BECAUSE there is no "scientific evidence" for it. Fine. Convince your family, friends, neighbors etc., when they are suffering from any form of "insanity". I am sure, they will be eternally grateful for the scientific advice.

Even though I myself LOVE to study science, I DO refuse to give up my humanity, which requires sometimes decidedly unscientific elements/views.

But, well, I am just a stupid manual laborer who does not understand anything. I could not possibly give the answer to anything.
THAT I must leave to the educated people.

With love from Japan (not from Russia!)
(I assume, you do have the scientific evidence for the existence of love .. and can measure it is exact units ...)